Jose Maria Rubio is an automotive journalist who’s always kept a keen eye on the world of motorsport, and especially the disciplines that don’t require smooth tarmac. He began covering the half-expedition, half-endurance race called the Camel Trophy back in 1987 with the Spanish teams, and subsequently traveled through the world’s harshest and most remote terrain for the next decade while calling it his day job. Enthralled with what Africa had to offer in particular, Jose Maria also followed the infamous Dakar Rally, but among the ruggedly high-tech rally cars, workhorse 4x4s, and sand dune slicing motorcycles, a Camel Trophy-spec Land Rover was the vehicle he’d long hoped to call his own. Mechanically fresh but aesthetically original (and better for it), he still puts the Sandglow yellow Disco through its paces.